Vampire Customs

All races have many unique customs, peculiarities of their culture, history, and way of life that are specific to them and their sense of racial identity. This article lists some that are unique to the vampire race, in no particular order.
For more basic information about this race, see Vampires.

Necessity of Feeding

Vampires are ruled by their need to feed on blood. Their living bodies are maintained magically by the lifeforce contained therein, but it also serves as their act of communion with their god and is therefore more than a simple matter of starvation. Vampires can only draw sustenance from the blood of the other reasoning races, and can go no longer than about two months before risking the rejection of their deity. They ideally feed lightly and frequently, though their needs vary depending on how heavily they exert themselves magically or physically.
Vampires draw more heavily on their lifeforce than other races; as it is largely stolen from other beings, it doesn’t replenish naturally when expended through magic or their innate abilities of transformation or fasthealing. As such, heavy use of magic or severe injuries will almost always leave the vampire with a greatly heightened craving for blood in the immediate aftermath. Many vampires choose to largely eschew magic without knowing there’s a ready source of food nearby for this reason, though those who already possessed an affinity for magic pre-Blooding can still rely on their natural lifeforce as an initial source of power without worrying about tapping into their stolen life.
The potent lifeforce in another being's blood also means that a vampire's lifespan is extended every time they feed; they steal a few years from the life of their victim every time they feed, or all the victim’s remaining years if they feed to the point of death. Feeding is inherently and drastically harmful to the victim, and feeding from the same individual too often will dramatically shorten their life and sap their vitality.

Creator's Obligation

While vampires almost always create offspring with the intention of bringing them into a clan, that's not always the case; sometimes a vampire is created only to be recognized as a threat, a liability, or is rejected for other reasons. Regardless of whether they're wanted or not, there are certain obligations that a creator must fulfill for the sake of giving their offspring the skills they need to navigate the world and maintain the essential secrecy by which vampires exist in the Old World. Failing to meet the Creator's Obligation before abandoning or driving out a fledgling vampire is one of the few true crimes of the race's culture and is grounds for execution.
All vampires are taught how to feed as part of the Obligation; while their natural pre-Blooding instincts will eventually drive them to seek out blood, it's important to learn how to control their natural cravings in order to make sure that not all kills are fatal. They learn to sense the lifeforce in another creature's blood, and how to regulate the amount that they take in order to leave their prey weakened but not debilitated.
All vampires are also taught basic magical proficiency, with the two base requirements being rudimentary healing to cover feeding wounds, and sustained illusion to disguise their nonhuman features even in their more human forms. Both of these skills require little energy to perform and maintain, and cause minimal drain on even a very fresh vampire’s reserves of power.
Creator's Obligation ends when a fledgling vampire undergoes their Blooding and forms a pact with one of the Blood Gods.

The Blooding

The Blooding is a highly ritualized process, the act by which a fledgling vampire matures into a fully formed adult. Consisting of their first feeding that drains another reasoning being to the point of death, it serves as a call to any of the Blood Gods who choose to take notice. Once a god chooses a vampire, they use the fresh reserve of power gained by feeding to reshape the vampire into their true form; they're irreversibly altered, and gain all their innate abilities at the cost of being permanently tied to the god whose favor they now depend on in order to live.
While the Blooding can be a matter of any available target, more often than not a vampire's first victim is carefully selected for them by their creator; whether out of fondness or out of a desire to produce a strong offspring that furthers the master's own power and status. It's meant to be a memorable moment in their life as well as a test of temperament, and as a result many vampires favor humans who are young, innocent, and uncommonly beautiful. Being able to procure a suitable subject is something of a status symbol and also seen as a show of devotion in offering only the best to the gods; the more rare and precious the offering, the more likely the Blood Gods will show their favor to their latest devotee.

The Divine Pact

All vampires have a patron among the Blood Gods who they maintain a symbiotic connection with. This isn’t a choice on the part of the vampire, but rather determined by which of the Blood Gods took notice and chose them at the time of their Blooding. While most are chosen by either Bloodbane or Rathae, sometimes an individual’s particular temperament may attract either Ishali (often those with tragedy or loss in their lives) or Zakath (often those of a particularly vicious nature). Followers of the Bound One are an exception, and are Blooded in such a way that conceals their presence from the rest of the Blood Gods; how this is done, or how they maintain a life-sustaining connection with an imprisoned good, is unknown.
Once they've undergone their Blooding, a vampire is fully tied to the god they made a pact with and relies on them fully for their ongoing survival. Ironically enough, the very act of devotion to their devotion is the reason that they rely so heavily on divine protection; the lifeforce of others is incredibly magically volatile, and by all rights it should destroy a mortal from within if held for any amount of time. It's only the constant protection of their patron god or goddess that internally shields vampires from this intense energy, and most still make frequent, liberal use of magic in order to bleed off the excess.
This need for constant protection is also the reason for vampires' aversion to sunlight; the Blood Gods are gods of deep darkness, and the ongoing active nature of the link between god and vampire means that sunlight will actively disrupt it. It’s not the sunlight itself that harms the vampire, but rather the sudden increase in exposure from the raw energy inside them. Even standing in shadow with reflected ambient sunlight is uncomfortable and dangerous after too great a length of time; in direct sunlight, the link between god and vampire is rapidly severed, and the vampire is consumed and destroyed by the stolen lifeforce they contain.

Perfection of Form

The vampires are literally made in the image of their gods, with their bodies reshaped dramatically post-Blooding to give them their 'true' inhuman form. At first, this transformation can be unsettling even though it's expected; vampires are vulnerable immediately after their transformation, and need time to adjust to the mechanical process of moving in a changed body. Over time though, most grow to take immense pride in their new form. When given the opportunity to shed their human skin, most vampires prefer to be either nude or wear very minimal draping clothing that shows as much of their body as possible; they have a great deal of pride in their naked form, and the lack of external genitalia means that they don't have much practical need for modesty.
Tattooing and body painting is a common practice among vampires, and many wear elaborate jagged designs in red that mimic and emphasize the natural contours of the body. While these marks do transfer over to their human form, it's a minor thing to hide them with the same magic they use to disguise their features when passing for human.